“Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Luke 1:45

‘Tis the season… of many doctor visits.  But our God gently reminds me through these times of waiting in a room of sick children that my Joshie isn’t the only one who is suffering.  Waiting is a practice which leads us to apply the virtue of patience, faith, and humility in our lives.  These are simply some thoughts God has spoken to my heart to share with those who are sitting in the waiting room with me. 

You are not alone!

The waiting room is inevitable as we all painfully await for our names to be uttered; for the promise in our lives to be fulfilled.  Oftentimes, we ask ourselves if we’ve been forgotten or if we’ve been mistakenly skipped and someone has received the blessing before us.  Perhaps we believe we will never attain it and we become discouraged and give up too soon prior to ever finding the answers we were searching.  Some have been blessed despite their lack of devotion to the God we serve, but are we even worthy of this gift we’ve received through His sacrifice and His love for humanity?  Shouldn’t that be enough to heal us?  Our desire for justice still invade our souls, the “why me?” syndrome seem to have infected our hearts as we wait.

This syndrome is rooted in pride.

And on top of it all, these thoughts don’t quicken our waiting.  Instead, they almost seem to be working against us as they slow us down from obtaining the promise.

Waiting is especially irritable when we are sick.  Prevention will not save us as our bodies were created to slowly decompose.  We will get sick, whether we want to or not.  But the deadliest of all ailments is our pride because it will deter us from the best prescription there is: the humility of Christ.

Our pride prevents us from acknowledging we are sick in the first place and keeps us living in the delusion that the waiting room is the last place to be… “for me.”

Our pride also renders our faith impossible. 

Pride pounds on its puffy chest, “I CAN DO IT,” while faith and humility require us to recognize the truth, “I can’t do it without Him.”

Without humility, faith cannot and will not exist.

Pride will be our demise if we let it go too far.

Our pride looks around and boasts, “You are all sick; I’m just here for my annual check up.”

Beware, that’s the most common symptom of pride. 

The worst part of pride is that its symptoms are invisible to your human eyes, but very apparent to those sick people around you.  It is much easier to point out someone else’s pride without ever detecting your own.  Your “annual checkup” could very well be the deliverer of terrible news.  You could be a health nut and proudly take care of your body and your appearance, but this cancer of the soul does not discriminate.  Like a Pharisee, you could be very spiritually sound and have incredible biblical knowledge; but when you feel like you have arrived, you will no longer feel the need of a Savior.  You could be rotting inside without you ever knowing it.

We’ve been led to believe “it’s all about me,” when in reality, it’s always been about Him.  All we do, especially the doing we do while we wait for the promise, is for His glory alone.  Mary knew this.  It wasn’t the mere fact that she waited because we all wait for something, but how she waited where the secret lies; she waited just as we should be.  She was told of the promise, but she wasn’t given the inside scoop.  She didn’t need all the details, yet the Bible tells us she still believed despite not knowing how the outcome was to unfold.  All she was promised was that she had been chosen to bring our Savior to this world, and for this, she knew there would be repercussions.  Her willingness to accept whatever may come from having to birth the Son of God took tremendous faith and humility, which moved God to provide for her needs even when Joseph didn’t know how to first ingest the news of his young and pregnant fiancee or when an innkeeper wouldn’t take them in.

When you find yourself stuck or rejected, be aware that our Savior always has room for us.  God did with Mary and Joseph what He always does with us, He not only gifts us with the promise but He does it with an element of surprise.  He wants us to look at Him with awe and wonder so we don’t forget where the glory goes.

But don’t be surprised if He leads you to the waiting room for a small season of your life.

The waiting room awaits us all. 

My friend, what are YOU waiting for?

Are you waiting for a miracle?

Are you waiting for your own healing or for your loved one to be healed?

For good news?  For reconciliation?  For justice to be served?  For peace?

Deliverance of sin?  Forgiveness?  Repentance?

A new job?  For a promotion?  A raise or a bonus that could help with those extra emergency bills?

For real friendships?  Or for your “soulmate”?  For deep relationships in your community?

To be loved? 

Some await patiently and make the best they can out of the boredom while others fidget anxiously and miss out on the opportunities that present themselves in midst of the waiting room.

Don’t be fooled, there’s a lot to do while we wait.

Praise Him.  Pray to Him.  Cry to Him.  Cling to Him.

Don’t lose faith when your circumstances try to convince you otherwise.  Like Mary, we are blessed when we believe in God’s ability to fulfill those promises.

He is our Healer.

He is the ultimate Promise Keeper.

Don’t miss out on the opportunities.  Don’t be distracted with your fancy phones or those glossy magazines that sit oh so neatly on the table right in front of you.  And the TV?  The TV is only there for background noise; there’s nothing else CNN or Fox News can tell us that we already know: we live in a cruel, corrupted, broken and self-seeking world in need of a Savior.  Nothing they say should shock us.  NOTHING.

Pray for God to enlighten you in the waiting room and simply be His hands and feet.

May He give us eyes to see the needs of others and may He give us the resources to meet them.

It could be THAT person sitting right next to you in the waiting room or someone across the world who has lost it all…

It could be a person who is waiting to be rescued from imminent danger.

My heart and soul ache whenever I read news coming from Aleppo, Syria.

If you are looking to make any donations this Christmas season,

I implore you to look into Preemptive Love: Aleppo

Let’s not be silent in our love for others…

especially when they don’t know the love of Christ.

Their emergency feeding program in Aleppo is already providing hot, cooked meals for 20,000 people every day.

$30 can provide sleeping bags for 2 people.

$250 can feed 10 families for a month.

$600 can provide sleeping bags for 40 people.

$1,000 can feed 40 families for a month.

Thank you all and Merry Christmas!